Gov. Cuomo pledges $2 million to support displaced Puerto Ricans living in New York

By Emilie Ruscoe and Denis Slattery

|NEW YORK DAILY NEWS|

Jul 25, 2018 | 3:15 PM

Gov. Cuomo announced new efforts for Puerto Ricans living in New York after being displaced by the Hurricane Maria. (Michael Noble Jr. / AP)

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Help is on the way for the thousands of Puerto Ricans who fled to New York after Hurricane Maria threw their lives into chaos.

Gov. Cuomo pledged another $2 million Wednesday to support families living in the state since being displaced by the deadly storm last September.

More than 11,000 residents from the U.S. territory have relocated to New York due to the hurricane, according to the governor’s office.

The money will go to a number of nonprofits that have been providing aid to victims with a focus on “connecting vulnerable families to needed services such as employment, housing, benefits counseling and health care,” the state said.

Cuomo, who returned from his fifth trip to the storm-ravaged island on Tuesday, continued to hammer the federal response to the disaster a day after issuing an open letter to President Trump calling on him to return to the epicenter of the devastation.

The administration’s efforts are “an embarrassment to the nation,” Cuomo said.

A video clip of the President tossing paper towels at a crowd during his one visit to the island in October played as Cuomo eviscerated the federal response.

“They were either negligent or incompetent or uncaring,” he said. “Maybe they just didn't give a darn. But whatever the motivation, whatever the reason, they compounded the damage and the harm that happened in Puerto Rico.”

The governor added that he and others who have spent time with residents trying to rebuild have witnessed just how slow the process has been.

“What our people are doing are basic repairs,” he said. “They're literally, 10 months later, still doing basic repairs of keeping water out of the home.”